


Oathbreaker

by journeycat



Category: PIERCE Tamora - Works, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Childbirth, Extramarital Affairs, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-13
Updated: 2011-04-13
Packaged: 2018-03-02 13:05:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2813009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/journeycat/pseuds/journeycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kalasin realizes that she is lacking that which would have made her a knight, anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oathbreaker

"He's beautiful."

Kaddar stood by her bed, his eyes glued to the babe nursing at her breast. Kalasin knew she probably looked terrible with tangled hair and haggard face and sweat-stained clothes and sheets, but he didn't seem to care. He never appeared to care what she did or how she looked; he was always bedazzled by her, it seemed. She always forgot that she was as exotic to him as he was to her.

"You can hold him, you know," she teased.

Reluctantly, Kaddar reached out for his son, awkwardly cradling him as Kally unceremoniously dumped him in his arms. Her husband looked awed, and she knew, then, that she loved him.

And yet, and yet—

She didn't love him back then, when the Tortallan delegation arrived. She was feeling homesick, isolated by the Carthaki nobles and her mother-in-law, and she may have—crossed a line. She told herself it didn't matter since it wasn't love, but that was selfish. No wonder her father forbade her knighthood. Perhaps he saw the oathbreaker she harbored inside. She could only hope that Binur would have her black hair, not brown; if the rest of his features were Tortallan, well, who would know it wasn't from her line?

_Well, my lord Cavall_ , the Empress thought, _looks like you have a son after all_.


End file.
